In his keynote speech at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, company COO Kevin Turner said that Apple's new iPhone, beset by antenna issues, "might be their Vista." Self-deprecation suits you well, Microsoft!

The real laughs came when Turner compared Apple's new phone to his own company's universally-loathed OS: Microsoft Vista. That's like killing two birds with one stone—or maybe making one glass of lemonade with two lemons?

Anyway, I'm not sure anyone else is willing to go that far. Apple's certainly taking a drubbing over the iPhone's reception issues, and their only official statement to date, that it's all a matter of how the software displays the bars of reception, hasn't done much to calm people down, but Consumer Reports still had the iPhone 4 ranked as the best smart phone you could buy, even after they said that you probably actually shouldn't buy it in the first place.

Still, it's always funny to see a big company poking fun at a competitor, and it's even more fun to see a big company poking fun at itself, so well done, Mr. Turner. Get started on some Bob material for your next keynote. [ComputerWorld via Engadget]